Whether or not a sinister "third force" ignited violence between Zulus and their ethnic rivals, these clashes certainly served the interest of the apartheid regime.

The alliance is also under pressure to reach out to all Afghans rather than confront ethnic rivals.

But the Ijaw see the oil companies as working hand in glove with their ethnic rivals, and vow to continue disrupting their operations.

The period following the ousting of Amin was a time of intense competition and fighting for power among different groups of political and ethnic rivals.

The shouting match among Yugoslavia's ethnic rivals is becoming a shooting match.

Now, the Serbs want either to maintain firm central powers or to achieve the old dream of a Greater Serbia at the expense of their ethnic rivals.

Thus, the presence of internal ethnic rivals creates the capacity to significantly increase the tax ratio.

The refugees are more than 10,000 Hutu who fled Rwanda three years ago after their ethnic rivals, the Tutsi, came to power.

Only a few refugees driven during the war from areas now dominated by ethnic rivals have been able, or willing, to return.

But when Iraq is increasingly violent, with ethnic and religious rivals murdering one another and the politicians squabbling endlessly, there is no reason for optimism.